back of my mind that I would stop in Ne-
braska some day and go to see Antonia. But
I kept putting it off until the next trip. I
did not want to find her aged and broken;
I really dreaded it. In the course of twenty
crowded years one parts with many illusions.
I did not wish to lose the early ones. Some
memories are realities, and are better than
anything that can ever happen to one again.

I owe it to Lena Lingard that I went to
see Antonia at last. I was in San Francisco
two summers ago when both Lena and Tiny
Soderball were in town. Tiny lives in a house
of her own, and Lena's shop is in an apart-
ment house just around the corner. It inter-
ested me, after so many years, to see the two
women together. Tiny audits Lena's accounts
occasionally, and invests her money for her;
and Lena, apparently, takes care that Tiny
doesn't grow too miserly. "If there's any-
thing I can't stand," she said to me in Tiny's
presence, "it's a shabby rich woman." Tiny
smiled grimly and assured me that Lena would
never be either shabby or rich. "And I don't
want to be," the other agreed complacently.

Lena gave me a cheerful account of An-
tonia and urged me to make her a visit.

[[370]]

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